Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak said on Tuesday that a new management company appointed to oversee Wang Fuk Court affairs was working hard to arrange a refund for homeowners over major renovation works that fuelled the inferno which destroyed most of the Tai Po residential estate.

The government has said seven of its eight blocks were destroyed in November's deadly blaze during the renovation and that they should therefore be demolished.

Over the weekend, the new company, Hop On Management, said it would hold a briefing session for homeowners in around a month's time, but some residents wanted a homeowners' meeting immediately.

The date is some two weeks later than what the company had originally announced last month.

Hop On said it was reviewing, with the help of legal advisers, contracts on the major renovation that were signed by the owners' corporation, which has since been dissolved, to work out its potential legal responsibilities and other matters.

After that, the company would then work out the refund details.

Mak said the government was planning to mandate briefings before formal meetings because that was a proven way to make things more efficient.

"Through the briefing sessions, the aim is to explain clearly to residents what has been sorted out after [Hop On] took over some 800,000 documents from the previous management company, for example contracts and payment records," she said after attending a function.

"Our experience shows that a briefing before the formal meeting is needed because if there isn't one, there are many homeowners at the meeting with limited time to raise questions, and it will also be hard for them to make quick decisions."

Mak stressed that a meeting of homeowners would be held in due course in accordance with the law to make sure they are consulted before any major decisions are made.

Hop On, she said, is attempting to pick a suitable date for the briefing session so that it wouldn't clash with the schedule given to displaced residents to return home to pick up their belongings, as well as public inquiry hearings being held on the disaster.


Edited by Edmond Fong